They Wear Tunics Of
Linen About Their Legs With Fringes, Which They Call /Calasiris/;
Above These They Have Garments Of White Wool Thrown Over:
Woolen
garments however are not taken into the temples, nor are they buried
with them, for this is not permitted by religion.
In these points they
are in agreement with the observances called Orphic and Bacchic (which
are really Egyptian), and also with those of the Pythagoreans, for one
who takes part in these mysteries is also forbidden by religious rule
to be buried in woolen garments; and about this there is a sacred
story told.
Besides these things the Egyptians have found out also to what god
each month and each day belongs, and what fortunes a man will meet
with who is born on any particular day, and how he will die, and what
kind of a man he will be: and these inventions were taken up by those
of the Hellenes who occupied themselves about poesy. Portents too have
been found out by them more than by all other men besides; for when a
portent has happened, they observe and write down the event which
comes of it, and if ever afterwards anything resembling this happens,
they believe that the event which comes of it will be similar. Their
divination is ordered thus: - the art is assigned not to any man but to
certain of the gods, for there are in their land Oracles of Heracles,
of Apollo, of Athene, of Artemis, or Ares, and of Zeus, and moreover
that which they hold most in honour of all, namely the Oracle of Leto
which is in the city of Buto. The manner of divination however is not
established among them according to the same fashion everywhere, but
is different in different places. The art of medicine among them is
distributed thus: - each physician is a physician of one disease and of
no more; and the whole country is full of physicians, for some profess
themselves to be physicians of the eyes, others of the head, others of
the teeth, others of the affections of the stomach, and others of the
more obscure ailments.
Their fashions of mourning and of burial are these: - Whenever any
household has lost a man who is of any regard amongst them, the whole
number of women of that house forthwith plaster over their heads or
even their faces with mud. Then leaving the corpse within the house
they go themselves to and fro about the city and beat themselves, with
their garments bound up by a girdle and their breasts exposed, and
with them go all the women who are related to the dead man, and on the
other side the men beat themselves, they too having their garments
bound up by a girdle; and when they have done this, they then convey
the body to the embalming. In this occupation certain persons employ
themselves regularly and inherit this as a craft. These, whenever a
corpse is conveyed to them, show to those who brought it wooden models
of corpses made like reality by painting, and the best of the ways of
embalming they say is that of him whose name I think it impiety to
mention when speaking of a matter of such a kind; the second which
they show is less good than this and also less expensive; and the
third is the least expensive of all.
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